


QUEST I : The Sound of Forgotten Goodbyes

by zk95379



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Book 1: The Lost Hero (Heroes of Olympus), Canon Rewrite, F/F, F/M, Female Percy Jackson, M/M, Percy Looks Like Rhea, Rewrite, Smart Percy Jackson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-27
Packaged: 2021-03-28 21:55:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30146181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zk95379/pseuds/zk95379
Summary: JASON has a problem. He can't remember anything apart from the fact that he's woken up on a bus with three people who are supposedly his friends. He can only remember one thing - a pair of green eyes.PERCY feels guilty. Jason can't remember her and he's looking at her like she can solve all of his problems. Which she couldn't, even if she wanted to, not unless she wanted to be killed unanimously by the Olympians. She's also slowly recovering from the impact of the Titan War, which, loathe as she is to admit it, has taken a massive toll on her.PIPER has a secret. She knows that it's going to get them all killed in horrible, nasty ways. But she can't help but hold her cards close to her chest, when all her life no one has ever believed the dreams she's had, the things she's seen.LEO... Leo is hurting. There's a small part of him that hopes that he's finally found his family. That he's finally found someplace to call home, some place he can live in, and not just exist. But then he realises he's still different, still might not be normal, and that's something he just can't fix with his tools.
Relationships: Jason Grace/Percy Jackson, Luke Castellan/Percy Jackson
Comments: 6
Kudos: 41





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I just wanted to put out a disclaimer that these characters and about 90% of the plot are NOT mine. They all belong to the master storyteller Rick Riordan. This fic is a hobby of mine that I've recently started and is in no way intended for anything but a way to enjoy myself and for others to enjoy. It will most definitely not be used for profit or anything else...suspicious/ breaching copyright laws (anymore than I already have :) ) etc.

**JASON I**

* * *

some memories never leave your bones. 

like the salt in the sea. they become

part of you.

and you carry them.

* * *

EVEN BEFORE HE GOT ELECTROCUTED, Jason was having a rotten day. Keeping in mind that he couldn’t remember the first part of his day… it was pretty bad.

He woke in the backseat of a school bus that stunk of teenagers, sweat and heat and that wasn’t necessarily the rotten part. Two girls sat either side of him, one holding his hand, the other scowling like she’d rather be anywhere else but here. But, the crux of the matter, the Big Why (as in _why_ his day was _rotten_ ), was that he couldn’t figure out who he was or what he was doing there. He sat up against the seat and rubbed his eyes, trying to think.

A few dozen kids sat sprawled in the seats in front of him, listening to iPods, talking raucously, or sleeping. They all looked around his age … fifteen? Sixteen? Okay, that was scary. He didn’t know his own _age_.

The bus rumbled along a bumpy road. Out of the windows, the desert rolled by in a dizzying blur of bright blue sky. Jason was pretty sure he _didn’t_ live in the desert. He tried to think back … the last thing he remembered …

A girl? Yes… a girl. With the most overwhelmingly beautiful eyes – green eyes like the sea – and the most ridiculous smile he’d ever seen. A small smile crept onto his face and he felt a tugging in his heart. And Jason, who for all intents and purposes didn’t know who _he_ was, knew that this girl was more than important to him.

But he couldn’t remember anything else. It seemed like everything was _just_ out of reach, almost close enough for him to reach, but far enough that he only caught wisps.

And there was a name, he was sure of it, just outside the grasp of his mind, if only he could just—

The girl holding his hand squeezed. “Jason, you okay?”

She sat to his left, wearing faded jeans, hiking boots, and a fleece snowboarding jacket. Her chocolate brown hair was cut choppy and uneven, with thin strands braided down the sides. She wore no makeup like she was trying not to draw attention to herself, but it didn’t work. She was seriously pretty. Her eyes seemed to change colour like a kaleidoscope—brown, blue, and green.

Jason let go of her hand. “Um, I don’t—”

The other girl on his left scoffed loudly. “Oh, for the Gods sake Piper leave him alone.” If Jason had thought the other girl – Piper as he knew now – was pretty, the scowling girl was jaw-droppingly gorgeous. She was wearing her black- almost- blue hair in an intricately braided crown, small tendrils escaping to frame her face. Her skin was inhumanly smooth, seeming to glow faintly in the shaded back of the bus and her eyes…

_Gods_

her eyes were the same from his memory,

* * *

 _“Come on Jason,” her voice was teasing, green eyes alight with mischief “what happened to the great, the fearsome, the sparkly_ — _”_

 _The light filtering through the trees fell on her face, like a spotlight, showing only her bright, glowing green eyes_ —

* * *

“All right, cupcakes, listen up!” The voice of the teacher in the front of the bus startled Jason – and the memory vanished.

The guy speaking was obviously the coach. His baseball cap was pulled low over his hair, so you could just see his beady eyes. He had a wispy goatee and a sour face, like he’d eaten something mouldy. His buff arms and chest pushed against a bright orange polo shirt. His nylon workout pants and Nikes were spotless white. A whistle hung from his neck, and a megaphone was clipped to his belt. He would’ve looked pretty scary if he hadn’t been five foot zero. When he stood up in the aisle, one of the students called, “Stand up, Coach Hedge!”

“I heard that!” The coach scanned the bus for the offender, glancing over the back of the bus, slowing on the green-eyed girl, who inclined her head slightly.

Then his eyes fixed on Jason, and his scowl deepened.

A jolt went down Jason’s spine. He was sure the coach knew he didn’t belong there. He was going to call Jason out, demand to know what he was doing on the bus—and Jason wouldn’t have a clue what to say.

But Coach Hedge looked away and cleared his throat. “We’ll arrive in five minutes! Stay with your partner. Don’t lose your worksheet. And if any of you precious little cupcakes causes any trouble on this trip, I will personally send you back to campus the hard way.”

He picked up a baseball bat and made like he was hitting a homer.

Jason looked at Green-eyes next to him. “Can he talk to us that way?”

She looked at him like he was asking something stupid. “What did you expect? For him to treat us like cupcakes and flowers. This is the Wilderness School, we’re all juvenile delinquents.”

She said it in an exasperated tone, it was neither kind nor harsh and Jason though that she could have been a lot more abrasive.

* * *

 _“I HATE you! Why are you so FULL of yourselves” She looked to the sky, glowering, eyes a storm. “How could they do t_ _his to_ _me? To us?” Then she looked at Jason and the anger subsided, leaving only a sad sort of pain. “You’re my_ — _”_

* * *

Jason shook his head, “This is some kind of mistake, I’m not supposed to be here.”

The boy in front of him turned and laughed. “Yeah, right, Jason. We’ve all been framed! I didn’t run away six times. Piper didn’t steal a BMW. Percy wasn’t involved in numerous terrorist attacks thereby blowing up the St Louis Arch and countless other monuments.”

Piper blushed saying “I didn’t steal that car, Leo!”, whilst Green-eyes — Percy — resumed her scowling, directing a glare at the boy.

“Oh, I forgot, Piper. You ‘talked’ the dealer into lending it to you?” He raised his eyebrows at Jason like, Can you believe her? Turning towards Percy with a cheerful face, as if he’d finally caught on to Percy’s ire, he smiled, “Percy, Percy. Lighten up man. You gotta accept the fact that we’re all in it for the long haul. I mean I imagine it’d be better than juvie.”

Leo looked like a Latino Santa’s elf, with curly black hair, pointy ears, a cheerful, babyish face, and a mischievous smile that told you right away this guy should not be trusted around matches or sharp objects. His long, nimble fingers wouldn’t stop moving—drumming on the seat, sweeping his hair behind his ears, fiddling with the buttons of his army fatigue jacket. Either the kid was naturally hyper or he was hopped up on enough sugar and caffeine to give a heart attack to a water buffalo.

“Anyway,” Leo said, “I hope you’ve got your worksheet, ’cause I used mine for spit wads days ago. Why are you looking at me like that? Somebody draw on my face again?”

“I don’t know you,” Jason said. And that was something he was sure about. Maybe he knew Percy, but she didn’t seem to recognise him, at least not openly.

Leo gave him a crocodile grin. “Sure. I’m not your best friend. I’m his evil clone.”

“Leo Valdez!” Coach Hedge yelled from the front. “Problem back there?”

Leo winked at Jason. “Watch this.” He turned to the front. “Sorry, Coach! I was having trouble hearing you. Could you use your megaphone, please?”

Coach Hedge grunted like he was pleased to have an excuse. He unclipped the megaphone from his belt and continued giving directions, but his voice came out like Darth Vader’s. The kids cracked up. The coach tried again, but this time the megaphone blared: “The cow says moo!”

The kids howled, and the coach slammed down the megaphone. “Valdez!”

Piper stifled a laugh. “My god, Leo. How did you do that?”

Leo slipped a tiny Phillips head screwdriver from his sleeve. “I’m a special boy.”

“Guys, seriously,” Jason pleaded. “What am I doing here? Where are we going?”

Piper knit her eyebrows. “Jason, are you joking?”

“No! I have no idea—”

“Aw, yeah, he’s joking,” Leo said. “He’s trying to get me back for that shaving cream on the Jell-O thing, aren’t you?”

Jason stared at him blankly.

“No, I think he’s serious.” This time Percy interjected she smiled a pained, almost guilty smile at him, as if to say, ‘I’m sorry this is happening to you’.

Piper tried to take his hand again, but Percy glared at her, and this wasn’t the harmless one she’d sent Leo either. Across from him, Leo shuddered dramatically, exclaiming, “You have got to tone that down Perce. I swear! One of these days you’re gonna give me a heart attack.”

Jason turned a grateful look at Percy, but she merely grimaced in return.

“That’s it!” Coach Hedge yelled from the front, interrupting their… whatever it was. “The back row has just volunteered to clean up after lunch!”

The rest of the kids cheered. “There’s a shocker,” Leo muttered.

But Piper kept her eyes on Jason, like she couldn’t decide whether to be hurt or worried. “Did you hit your head or something? You really don’t know who we are?”

Jason shrugged helplessly. “It’s worse than that. I don’t know who _I_ am.”

Percy inhaled sharply beside him, and he turned to look at her, eyes wide as if to ask, ‘Did you know me? Did you know what happened to me? Can you help me?’

She merely looked away, staring towards the window, eyes glazed over.

The bus dropped them in front of a big red stucco complex like a museum, just sitting in the middle of nowhere. Maybe that’s what it was: The National Museum of Nowhere, Jason thought. A cold wind blew across the desert. Jason hadn’t paid much attention to what he was wearing, but it wasn’t nearly warm enough: jeans and sneakers, a purple T-shirt with faded words and a thin black windbreaker.

“So, a crash course for the amnesiac,” Leo said, in a helpful tone that made Jason think this was not going to be helpful. “We go to the ‘Wilderness School’”—Leo made air quotes with his fingers. “Which means we’re ‘bad kids.’ You told us your stepmom sent you here, Percy was suddenly sent here because she’d been kicked out of too many schools and Piper thinks her dad wanted to get rid of her. But we’re here because we’ve had trash lives and the system doesn’t have a better way to cater to my awesomeness and your needs. All coming back now. Or do we need to get Coach to hit you with that baseball bat of his?

“No.” Jason glanced apprehensively at the other kids: maybe twenty guys, half that many girls. None of them looked like hardened criminals, but he wondered what they’d all done to get sentenced to a school for delinquents, and he wondered why he belonged with them.

Leo rolled his eyes. “You’re really gonna play this out, huh? Okay, so the four of us started here together this semester. We’re totally tight. You do everything I say and give me your dessert and do my chores, Percy has you totally whipped—”

“Leo!” Piper snapped. Percy snorted besides him.

“Piper it’s just Leo. This is what he does. Give up the whinging.” Leo sent a delighted grin at Percy who simply gave a small smile in return.

“Fine. Ignore that last part. But we are friends. Well, Pipes want to be a little more than your friend—”

“Leo, stop it!” Piper’s face turned red. Jason could feel his face starting to flush too, not out of like or anything, but just because he couldn’t imagine how mortifying it would be if someone outed his crush in front of them.

“He’s got amnesia or something,” Piper said. “We’ve got to tell somebody.”

Leo scoffed. “Who, Coach Hedge? He’d try to fix Jason by whacking him upside the head.”

The coach was at the front of the group, barking orders and blowing his whistle to keep the kids in line; but every so often he’d glance back at Jason and scowl.

“Leo, Jason needs help,” Piper insisted. “He’s got a concussion or—”

“Drop it Piper. I swear to Gods I say this like ten times a day. Can’t you loosen up a little. We’re at a school for delinquents. Nobody’s going to care, and frankly I think it’s a waste of time as well. Who’s going to do anything here?” Percy said.

Piper grumbled. “There’s nothing wrong with being cautious. He could be seriously injured—"

Leo offered Piper his arm, looping them together before dragging her off. 

Jason figured that if this was his best friend, his life must be pretty messed up; he looked to Percy left besides him. “So—” he said, pointing towards the door, “wanna work together?”

Percy looked at him like he was an idiot yet again. “We’re friends, aren’t we?” He asked this cautiously. In return Percy rolled her eyes, like it was a daily occurrence for her friends to lose their memories.

* * *

 _“We’re always going to be friends Jase.” She looked closely into his eyes, staring until she seemed satisfied with something. “I’ll never leave you and you’ll never leave me. Right?” She seemed oddly vulnerable in that moment, and Jason realised he would never willingly leave her, not when he was all she had, and she was all he had. She was his everything_ —

* * *

“Idiot. Why wouldn’t I go with you? Think I’d go with a pig like Dylan”, she sneered at a jock, who flashed his teeth, so white they were blinding, as they walked by. Jason hated him on sight. He was about twice his size, wide breadth with a towering presence. Jason supposed he was one of those guys that got on your nerves and that were always going for the girls—

“Hey Jackson, looking good”, case in point. Percy barely reacted to his comment, choosing to ignore him, though her fists clenched around something in her jacket pockets.

The coach opened the doors, and they all stepped outside. The Grand Canyon spread before them, live and in person. Extending over the edge was a horseshoe-shaped walkway made of glass, so you could see right through it.

“Gods how I hate heights—” Percy muttered. Jason blinked surprised. He didn’t expect someone like Percy to be afraid of something like— “Don’t get any funny ideas Jason. I’m not afraid of _heights_. I just… don’t have any good memories associated with them.” There was an underlying emotion coating her words, it wasn’t fear — more like anger.

Well… there went his line of thinking. She whistled appreciatively. “It’s still damn impressive.”

Jason had to agree. Despite his amnesia and his feeling that he didn’t belong there, he couldn’t help being impressed.

The canyon was bigger and wider than you could appreciate from a picture. They were up so high that birds circled below their feet. Five hundred feet down, a river snaked along the canyon floor. Banks of storm clouds had moved overhead while they’d been inside, casting shadows like angry faces across the cliffs. As far as Jason could see in any direction, red and grey ravines cut through the desert like some crazy god had taken a knife to it.

* * *

_There was a vengeful light in her eyes, knuckles white as they gripped her sword tightly._

_“The Gods don’t care about us Jason. They’re crazy. They mess up our lives and then they just abandon us and expect us to_ listen _to them. You and I are lucky. I have you and you have me.”_

_“Always”_

* * *

Jason got a piercing pain behind his eyes. Crazy gods ... Where had he come up with that idea? He felt like he’d gotten close to something important—something he should know about. He also got the unmistakable feeling he was in danger. Hadn’t Percy also said something abou—

The pain focused into a nauseating sensation. He leaned dangerously close to the edge of the bridge, which was starting to creak. And if a metal bridge creaking wasn’t ominous, he didn’t know what was.

Thunder rumbled overhead. A cold wind almost knocked him sideways.

Percy swore under her breath. Something changed in the way she held herself, going from relaxed to tense and wary. She reached into her pocket, bringing out a ballpoint pen.

“This can’t be safe.” Leo said, as he walked over, bringing Piper with him. “Storm’s right over us, but it’s clear all the way around. Weird, huh?”

Jason looked up and saw Leo was right. A dark circle of clouds had parked itself over the skywalk, but the rest of the sky in every direction was perfectly clear. Jason had a bad feeling about that.

“All right, cupcakes!” Coach Hedge yelled. He frowned at the storm like it bothered him too. “We may have to cut this short, so get to work! Remember, complete sentences!”

The storm rumbled, and Jason’s head began to hurt again. Not knowing why he did it, he reached into his jeans pocket and brought out a coin—a circle of gold the size of a half-dollar, but thicker and more uneven. Stamped on one side was a picture of a battle-ax. On the other was some guy’s face wreathed in laurels. The inscription said something like ivlivs.

“Dang, is that gold?” Leo asked. “You been holding out on me!”

Jason put the coin away, wondering how he’d come to have it, and why he had the feeling he was going to need it soon.

“It’s nothing,” he said. “Just a coin.”

Leo shrugged. Maybe his mind had to keep moving as much as his hands. “Come on,” he said. “Dare you to spit over the edge.”

They didn’t try very hard on the worksheet. For one thing, Jason was too distracted by the storm and his own mixed-up feelings. For another thing, he didn’t have any idea how to “name three sedimentary strata you observe” or “describe two examples of erosion.”

Leo was no help. He was too busy building a helicopter out of pipe cleaners.

Neither was Percy. She was acting _strange_ , though _paranoid_ would probably be a better word. She kept glancing over their shoulders and was absolutely useless in helping to fill their worksheet. In fact, she hadn’t attempted to help stating that she had “terrible dyslexia. I can’t even read the questions.”

Jason resigned himself to filling out the worksheet himself. He might have finished it, when an obscenely strong gust of wind swept through. It ripped the worksheet from Jason’s hands and sent it careening into the distance.

He wrote off the ever-growing wind as freak weather, though unease was starting to build up in the pit of his stomach.

The next gust of wind felt like a truck slamming into the bridge. Any doubts that the weather wasn’t dangerous were abandoned.

Lightning crackled overhead. The wind picked up with a vengeance. Worksheets flew into the Grand Canyon, and the entire bridge shuddered. Kids screamed, stumbling and grabbing the rails.

Coach Hedge bellowed into his megaphone: “Everyone inside! The cow says moo! Off the skywalk!”

“Jason!” Jason looked over to where Percy was standing. She was at the furthest point from the museum, right at the curve of the horseshoe. There was a panicked look on her face and, without knowing what he was doing, Jason began to walk towards her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A strike of lightning tore through the sky, inches away from Percy, who—
> 
> Jason blinked. Where had she gone? 
> 
> Percy wasn’t there anymore.
> 
> She was gone.

JASON II

* * *

The sea, once it casts its spell,

holds one in its net of wonder.

Forever.

JACQUES COUSTEAU

* * *

THE STORM CHURNED INTO A MINIATURE HURRICANE. Funnel clouds snaked toward the skywalk like the tendrils of a monster jellyfish.

Kids screamed and ran for the building. The wind snatched away their notebooks, jackets, hats, and backpacks. Jason skidded across the slick floor.

Leo lost his balance and almost toppled over the railing, but Jason grabbed his jacket and pulled him back.

“Thanks, man!” Leo yelled.

“Go, go, go!” said Coach Hedge.

Piper and Dylan were holding the doors open, herding the other kids inside. Piper’s snowboarding jacket was flapping wildly, her dark hair all in her face. Jason thought she must’ve been freezing, but she looked calm and confident telling the others it would be okay, encouraging them to keep moving.

Leo, and Coach Hedge ran toward them, and Jason towards Percy, whose eyes were wild as she tried to keep hold of the railing, but it was like running through quicksand. The wind seemed to fight them, pushing them back.

Dylan and Piper pushed one more kid inside, then lost their grip on the doors. They slammed shut, closing off the skywalk.

Piper tugged at the handles. Inside, the kids pounded on the glass, but the doors seemed to be stuck.

“Dylan, help!” Piper mouthed.

Dylan just stood there with an idiotic grin, his Cowboys jersey rippling in the wind, like he was suddenly enjoying the storm.

“Sorry, Piper,” he said. “I’m done helping.”

He flicked his wrist, and Piper flew backward, slamming into the other kids inside and banging her head on the wall.

“Piper!” Leo started, as if to charge forward, but the wind was against him, and Coach Hedge pushed him back.

Jason looked back to where Leo and the Coach were standing, before moving forward again towards Percy. If he’d looked back, he would have seen the coach’s cap blowing off, revealing two small horns on his head.

Dylan gave him that psycho happy smile, before he too began to move towards Percy — only he didn’t seem to have the same difficulty that Jason had, fighting against the wind. If anything, the wind seemed to aid him, gently buffeting him across the skywalk. He was closer than Jason was to Percy now; the knot in the pit of his stomach began to tighten.

The coach made an angry sound like an animal bleating, but didn’t move after Dylan, going instead to help Leo, who had moved to the door of the museum and was holding on valiantly.

“You think you can protect four half-bloods at once, old man?” Dylan laughed. “Good luck.”

And then Dylan pointed at Percy, and a funnel cloud materialized around her. The edge of the bridge that she’d been holding made a horrendous screeching sound, ripping itself free of the skywalk, leaving Percy on a ledge, milliseconds away from certain death.

Jason knew he should do something. He was _so close_. How could he let anybody fall — how could he let Percy?

* * *

_“I’ll never let you fall okay.” His arms were wrapped tightly around her waist, her face buried in the crook of his shoulder, which was strange because she was slightly taller than him._

_“I know that_ you’ll _never let me fall, Jase. But it’s your father I’m worried about…”_

_“If he touches you, I’ll hate him forever,” he looked to the sky, shouting, “you hear me dad!? If you do_ anything _to her, I’ll hit you back ten times harder.” He looked at the girl he was holding, who looked at him as if he were insane._

_“Jase_ — _”_

* * *

A strike of lightning tore through the sky, inches away from Percy, who—

Jason blinked. Where had she gone?

Percy wasn’t _there_ anymore.

She was gone.

Jason looked over to Dylan. There was a burning sensation in his chest, a _want_ to fight. 

The jock continued, although Jason didn’t think he was entirely human anymore. “To think—” he smiled, and it was a nasty smile, all white teeth and nothing else “that I, a mere wind spirit—” and there was the confirmation of his idea, Dylan wasn’t human— “have vanquished the great Percy Jackson.”

He spread his arms wide, as if to say, ‘look how much better I am than you. I caused somebody’s death and you were _useless_.’

“Why it’s quite a surprise. After all of the stories I had heard—”

What stories, Jason thought, hand in his pocket, reaching for ivlivs, though he didn’t know why in particular.

Dylan smiled a smug smile. “Didn’t you know?” There was a cruel glint in his eyes, a spark of something dangerous—

He turned towards Leo this time and Jason thought with horror — I can’t let anyone fall again.

But he was too late. And just as a funnel of clouds had lifted Percy —and she was _dead_ Jason thought numbly, there was no way she had survived a fall like that — they lifted Leo into the air and over the edge of the canyon.

It was luck, Jason thought, that kept Leo from his death. His twisting and flailing pushed him back to the side of the canyon where he grasped furiously for any purchase. By chance, he caught onto a ledge — and Jason let go slightly of the anxiety in his chest.

“Help!” Leo called.

Jason thought that if he hadn’t seen two people almost die — and one of them _had_ died — he may have suffered a heart attack from seeing Coach Hedge kick off his shoes … to reveal hooves.

“You’re a faun.” He said, and there was no doubt that he had seen them before. A niggling whisper of a notion in the back of his head. 

“Satyr!” Hedge snapped. “Fauns are Roman. But we’ll talk about that later.”

Hedge leaped over the railing. He sailed toward the canyon wall and hit hooves first. He bounded down the cliff with impossible agility, finding footholds no bigger than postage stamps, dodging whirlwinds that tried to attack him as he picked his way toward Leo.

“Isn’t that cute!” Dylan turned toward Jason. “Now it’s your turn, boy.”

Jason threw the club. It seemed useless with the winds so strong, but the club flew right at Dylan, even curving when he tried to dodge, and smacked him on the head so hard he fell to his knees.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jason saw something rise from the edge of the canyon, but he turned his focus back on Dylan as he rose. Blood—golden blood—trickled from his forehead.

“Nice try, boy.” He glared at Jason. “But you’ll have to do better.”

The skywalk shuddered. Hairline fractures appeared in the glass. Inside the museum, kids stopped banging on the doors. They backed away, watching in terror.

Dylan’s body dissolved into smoke, as if his molecules were coming unglued. He had the same face, the same brilliant white smile, but his whole form was suddenly composed of swirling black vapor, his eyes like electrical sparks in a living storm cloud. He sprouted black smoky wings and rose above the skywalk. If angels could be evil, Jason decided, they would look exactly like this.

“You’re a ventus,” Jason said, though he had no idea how he knew that word. “A storm spirit.”

Dylan’s laugh sounded like a tornado tearing off a roof. “I’m glad I waited, demigod. Leo and Piper I’ve known about for weeks. Could’ve killed them at any time. But my mistress said a third and fourth would arrive—both of them special. She’ll reward me greatly for Percy Jackson—Titan-Killer’s death! And she’ll reward me greatly for yours as well!”

Two more funnel clouds touched down on either side of Dylan and turned into venti—ghostly young men with smoky wings and eyes that flickered with lightning.

The something that Jason had seen from the corner of his eyes, crept over the edge behind the two venti. It was—

It was Percy, Jason realised.

And a feeling of hysteria started to take over.

Was _she_ one of the venti? How could she have survived otherwise.

Would she try to kill him as well?

But then she reached Coach Hedge’s bat, grasping it within her hands, eyes glowing poisonously, as if to say: you distract them and I’ll gut them from behind.

Smart, dangerous and violent. Jason _wished_ he remembered having a friend like her.

He clenched his fists and got ready to charge, but he never got a chance.

Dylan raised his hand, arcs of electricity running between his fingers, and blasted Jason in the chest.

Bang! Jason found himself flat on his back. His mouth tasted like burning aluminium foil. He lifted his head and saw that his clothes were smoking. The lightning bolt had gone straight though his body and blasted off his left shoe. His toes were black with soot.

The storm spirits were laughing. The winds raged. Percy had gotten closer to the storm spirits, who seemed unaware that she was even there. There was a furious glint in her glowing eyes, one that spoke of pain and hatred.

A little ways of, Jason saw Coach Hedge climbing the cliff with Leo on his back. Percy had finaly reached the two wind spirits, a long bronze sword held loosely between her fingers. And Dylan, a dark and winged tornado with eyes, loomed over Jason.

“Stop,” Jason croaked. He rose unsteadily to his feet, and he wasn’t sure who was more surprised: him, or the storm spirits.

“How are you alive?” Dylan’s form flickered. “That was enough lightning to kill twenty men!”

“My turn,” Jason said.

He reached in his pocket and pulled out the gold coin. He let his instincts take over, flipping the coin in the air like he’d done it a thousand times. He caught it in his palm, and suddenly he was holding a sword—a wickedly sharp double-edged weapon. The ridged grip fit his fingers perfectly, and the whole thing was gold— hilt, handle, and blade.

Dylan snarled and backed up. He looked at his two comrades and yelled, “Well? Kill him!”

The other storm spirits didn’t look happy with that order, but before they could fly at Jason, they poofed out of existence. Standing atop the gold powder which had once been the two venti, a satisfied look on her face, was Percy.

Dylan wailed in outrage. He looked down as if expecting his comrades to re-form, but their gold dust remains dispersed in the wind. “Impossible! You’re supposed to be dead.”

He looked at Jason. “And who are you, half-blood?”

But Jason was looking at Percy who was smiling a ridiculous smile.

* * *

_"I thought I was gonna have to come back to your smushed up remains Sparky-sparky-boom-man. Where’d_ you _get a sword like that?”_

_She looked impressed, and Jason felt his heart dance a little in his chest._

_“Lupa said my father gave it to me_ — _”_

* * *

Then Coach Hedge leaped back onto the skywalk and dumped Leo like a sack of flour.

“Spirits, fear me!” Hedge bellowed, flexing his short arms.

Then he looked around and realized there was only Dylan. “Curse it, boy!” he snapped at Jason. “Didn’t you leave some for me? I like a challenge!”

Jason stared at him in bewilderment.

Leo got to his feet, breathing hard. He looked completely humiliated, his hands bleeding from clawing at the rocks. “Yo, Coach Supergoat, whatever you are—I just fell down the freaking Grand Canyon! Stop asking for challenges!”

Upon seeing Percy in between Dylan and Jason, he exclaimed in surprise, “Percy! I thought you were dead. Thank God you’re not, I’ve been left with cuckoo people who want to kill me!”

Dylan hissed at them, looking between Percy and Jason, as if deciding whether he could fight them both. But Jason could see fear in his eyes. “You have no idea how many enemies you’ve awakened, half-bloods. My mistress will destroy all demigods. This war you cannot win.”

Above them, the storm exploded into a full-force gale. Cracks expanded in the skywalk. Sheets of rain poured down, and Jason had to crouch to keep his balance.

A hole opened in the clouds—a swirling vortex of black and silver.

“The mistress calls me back!” Dylan shouted with glee. “And you, demigod, will come with me!”

He lunged at Jason, but Percy tackled the monster from behind. Even though he was made of smoke, she somehow managed to connect. Both of them went sprawling. Leo, Jason, and the coach surged forward to help, but the spirit screamed with rage. He let loose a torrent that knocked them all backward. Coach Hedge landed on his butt. Jason’s sword skidded across the glass. Leo hit the back of his head and curled on his side, dazed and groaning. Jason got the worst of it. He was thrown backwards and hit the railing, tumbling over the side until he was hanging by one hand over the abyss.

Coach started towards him, as if to rescue him the same way he’d rescued Leo, but Dylan screamed, “I’ll settle for this one!”

Then he grabbed Percy’s arm, shooting towards the void, before disappearing in a clap of thunder.

The storm cleared up instantly, the sun reappearing, the rain stopping abruptly. Jason hauled himself over the edge, which was far easier now that the monster gales had ceased.

The revelation of supernatural entities may have been cool under different circumstances, but Jason just felt exhausted. He had thought Percy had died, she had reappeared, only to be taken yet again.

Piper, having viewed the entire debacle from within the museum came rushing out, before turning Leo over. He groaned. His army coat was soaked from the rain. His curly hair glittered gold from rolling around in monster dust. But at least he wasn’t dead.

“Stupid … ugly … goat,” he muttered.

“Hey! I heard that Valdez”

Leo groaned even louder. “What happened? The tornado guy, Percy came back from the dead, the gold sword … I hit my head. That’s it, right? I’m hallucinating?”

Jason had forgotten about the sword. He walked over to where it was lying and picked it up. The blade was well balanced. On a hunch he flipped it. Midspin, the sword shrank back into a coin and landed in his palm.

“Yep,” Leo said. “Definitely hallucinating.”

Piper shivered in her rain-soaked clothes. “Jason, those things—”

“Venti,” he said. “Storm spirits.”

“Okay. You acted like … like you’d seen them before. Who are you?”

He shook his head. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. I don’t know.”

The storm dissipated. The other kids from the Wilderness School were staring out the glass doors in horror. Coach Hedge turned to go back to the kids, but before he did, he looked at Jason.

“You gotta stay put kid. There’s an extraction team coming for you guys. Percy should’ve been able to—” he shook his head. “I should’ve known she wasn’t dead. That put me off my A-game and now the guys coming are going to kill me.”

He faced all three of them. “You three are demigods. The squad that’s coming are going to take you to a safe place that’s away from the monsters. Wait here and don’t move.”

Then he trotted over to his trainers, which had somehow stayed put the entire fight, before making his way over to the rest of the class.

Leo lay on his back, staring at the sky. He didn’t seem anxious to get up. “Don’t know what demi means,” he said. “But I’m not feeling too godly. You guys feeling godly?”

There was a brittle sound like dry twigs snapping, and the cracks in the skywalk began to widen.

“We need to get off this thing,” Jason said. “Maybe if we—”

“Ohhh-kay,” Leo interrupted. “Look up there and tell me if those are flying horses.”

At first Jason thought Leo had hit his head too hard.

Then he saw a dark shape descending from the east—too slow for a plane, too large for a bird. As it got closer he could see a pair of winged animals—gray, four-legged, exactly like horses —except each one had a twenty-foot wingspan. And they were pulling a brightly painted box with two wheels: a chariot.

“Reinforcements,” he said. “Hedge told us an extraction squad was coming for us.”

Jason watched as the chariot landed on the far end of the skywalk. The flying horses tucked in their wings and cantered nervously across the glass, as if they sensed it was near breaking. Two teenagers stood in the chariot—a tall blond guy maybe the same age as Jason, and a bulky dude with a shaved head and a face like a pile of bricks. They both wore jeans and orange T-shirts, with shields tossed over their backs. The blond guy leaped off before the chariot had even finished moving. He pulled out a knife and ran toward Jason’s group while the bulky dude was reining in the horses.

“Where is she?” the guy demanded. His grey eyes were fierce and a little startling.

“Where’s who?” Jason asked.

He frowned at the ground, as if looking for something. A little way away from them, a bronze pen lay innocuously, scuffed in the dirt.

The boy cursed. “Godsdamnit. She doesn’t have her sword.” If the morning hadn’t been quite so weird and scary, Jason might have laughed at the fact that the pen was a sword. But then he realised his sword was a coin and they weren’t so different, were they?

Leo cleared his throat. “You mean Percy right?”

The boy nodded.

“She got taken by some—”

“Venti,” Jason said. “Storm spirits.”

The blond boy arched an eyebrow. “You mean άνεμοι θυελλαι? That’s the Greek term. Who are you, and what happened?”

Jason did his best to explain, though it was hard to meet those intense grey eyes. About halfway through the story, the other guy from the chariot came over. He stood there glaring at them, his arms crossed. He had a tattoo of a rainbow on his biceps, which seemed a little unusual.

When Jason had finished his story, the blond guy looked furious. Actually, scratch that. He looked like he wanted to murder somebody. “No, no, no! She told me that this was a low stakes quest. She told me she wouldn’t need help and that we’d find the answer as to why the Gods have shut down Olympus. ”

“Anthony,” the bald guy grunted. “Check it out.” He pointed at Jason’s feet.

Jason hadn’t thought much about it, but he was still missing his left shoe, which had been blown off by the lightning. His bare foot felt okay, but it looked like a lump of charcoal.

“The guy with one shoe,” said the bald dude. “He’s the answer.”

“No, Butch,” the boy insisted. “He can’t be. I was tricked.” He glared at the sky as though it had done something wrong. “What do you want from me?” He screamed. “What have you done with her?”

The skywalk shuddered, and the horses whinnied urgently.

“Anthony,” said the bald dude, Butch, “we gotta leave. Let’s get these three to camp and figure it out there. Those storm spirits might come back.”

He fumed for a moment. “Fine.” He fixed Jason with a resentful look. “We’ll settle this later.”

He turned on his heel and marched toward the chariot.

Piper shook her head. “What’s his problem? What’s going on?”

“Seriously,” Leo agreed.

“We have to get you out of here,” Butch said. “I’ll explain on the way.”

“I’m not going anywhere with him.” Jason gestured toward the blonde. “He looks like he wants to kill me.”

Butch hesitated. “Anthony’s okay. You gotta cut him some slack. He had a vision telling him to come here, to find a guy with one shoe. That was supposed to be the answer to his problem.”

“What problem?” Piper asked.

“He’s been looking for one of our campers, who went on a quest three days ago,” Butch said. “He got a distress call from her, saying there were three half-bloods, all over thirteen, all of them powerful.

“Who?” Jason asked.

“His soulmate,” Butch said. “Percy Jackson.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> άνεμοι θυελλαι- anemoi thuellai or storm spirits


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Jason, I’m sure you got that scar from trying to eat a stapler. I saw it in a dream!” Percy was smiling from ear to ear. It was such a stupid way to get that scar—especially as Jason thought it was from doing something brave and demigodly. 
> 
> “Percy that’s ridiculous. I would never do something like that—”
> 
> “Oh yeah. What about that time you almost sharpened your finger because you didn’t know how to use a sharpener? Or that time you almost drowned because you thought the river naiads would like a son of Jupiter—”
> 
> Jason flushed a deep red, and Percy laughed at his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh - I'm sorry this is so short.... it's holiday now for me so maybe expect a slightly longer chapter later ?

PERCY III

* * *

‘We must accept finite disappointment,

but never lose infinite hope.’

MARTIN LUTHER KING

* * *

PERSEPHONE WAS FALLING. But as the air whistled past her, she could only really think about how crazy her life must have gotten if this was normal for her.

Maybe a few years ago, before she’d jumped out of the St Louis Arch willingly, she’d have been horrified at the prospect of falling into the Grand Canyon. Luckily (or unluckily) for her, she had plenty of experience falling from heights­— at least this time, unlike Mt St Helens, she was conscious.

Let it be noted that Percy didn’t do this on purpose. In fact, she blamed her wholly undesirable (or rather non-existent) luck on the three old women who had knitted a positively disgusting pair of garish rainbow socks for her life.

The dreams had restarted a few weeks after the Titan War ended. The nightmares had never stopped—

* * *

 _“I_ will _make you my Queen, my darling Rhea_ — _” Kronos whispered. It wasn’t one of those whispers where the message got garbled after being sent._

_No._

_The intent behind those words were the same every time._

_And Gods, did they terrify her._

_Eyes cold and dark. Smile painted on his face._

_As if he wasn’t a murderer._

_And a liar._

_And a_ —

* * *

But she had gotten used to them slightly. Still humiliated, still anxious and afraid, but numb to the once paralysing effects they had had on her.

The dreams were different. She had always had them, albeit not so frequently.

When she was younger, she used to dream of a dark-haired girl with piercing blue eyes, who lived in the streets with two boys and who turned into a tree. When she came to camp, she realised it was Thalia.

When she was younger, she used to dream of two siblings, both olive-skinned with soul-searching eyes, who lived in a building lit only by casino lights, surrounded by games. It was only too obvious who they were when she and Anthony had gone to Westover hall to rescue two demigods.

When she was younger, she had dreamt of a girl who could speak, and people would do as she said.

When she was younger, she had seen a boy’s hands light on fire, eyes burning—

So, when she had started to dream again, of the girl and the boy, and this time _Jason_ , she knew something was happening.

When Hera had appeared in her dreams, as Juno, wearing her goatskin cloak, she knew that the Great Prophecy she and Anthony had hoped to avoid was beginning. And when Juno ordered her to go to the Wilderness School, she had gone — if only to find Jason.

It was all too easy to tell Chiron that she needed a break, that Camp was stifling her and that she needed to see her mother. And that _was_ true. She had stayed with her mother for a few weeks, recuperating, baking cookies, watching movies, attempting to learn some Shakespeare with Paul.

And then this morning she had joined the Wilderness School on their trek into the desert and found Jason and Piper and Leo.

And _Gods_ did seeing Jason hurt.

He looked the same… and different.

His hair was still that same blonde, close-cropped as per Lupa’s ministrations and his eyes hadn’t changed. He even had that faint scar on his upper lip, which she was sure was from trying to eat a stapler.

* * *

 _“Jason, I’m sure you got that scar from trying to eat a stapler. I saw it in a dream!” Percy was smiling from ear to ear. It was such a stupid way to get that scar_ — _especially as Jason thought it was from doing something brave and demigodly._

 _“Percy that’s ridiculous. I would never do something like that_ — _”_

 _“Oh yeah. What about that time you almost sharpened your finger because you didn’t know how to use a sharpener? Or that time you almost drowned because you thought the river naiads would like a son of Jupiter_ — _”_

_Jason flushed a deep red, and Percy laughed at his face._

* * *

But he didn’t recognise her.

Apparently, he had no memories, which was hurtful, but made her life much easier, seeing as she didn’t have to dance around the oath that she made not to reveal the other demigods until the time was right. And it made her feel guilty as hell, but…she couldn’t help it now could she.

His memory problem wasn’t even a big issue, until the άνεμοι θεολλαι had appeared and she didn’t know whether he could fight them.

And that left her on the skywalk, holding on for dear life as the winds attempted to throw her over.

In short, they succeeded. Which is how she found herself falling.

It was reminiscent of how she’d fallen almost four years ago. Body on fire from the Chimaera’s poison, falling to the river below. Only this time, she knew she wouldn’t die when she hit the water.

Down, down, down into the water.

There was an anticlimactic floomp as she landed and she remembered belatedly that Jason was now alone, above the Canyon, probably thinking she was dead, fighting wind monsters without a memory. 

Percy shot up, using the water to propel her over six-thousand feet — and sure it was tiring, but the water gave her _some_ energy, even if it wasn’t sea water—over the edge of the Canyon where she was faced with the sight of Leo hanging from a precipice and Jason facing Dylan and two goons.

And then she was stabbing the two of them with Riptide—

And being kidnapped by a psycho Wind Spirit.

All in all, a great day.

Anthony was going to _kill_ her.


End file.
